Double win for White Lightning in dinghy races

The Shetland Dinghy Champion­ships, incorporating the Shetland Fireball Nationals, were sailed at the weekend in Lerwick.

Sixteen dinghies entered and Saturday morning saw the com­petitors take to the water on a beautiful but very calm day, in a variety of boats from a Laser 4.7 up to an Olympic 49er.

Race officer Margaret Tait set a trapezoidal course in the north harbour, which had to be altered when the wind direction changed. The race was finally started, but with the wind falling, only one round of the course was possible.

All boats finished within a minute of each other and on cor­rected time Kirsten Napier, sailing a Laser 4.7, won her first senior race from the Albacore Blue Mist (Steven Brown and David Thomson).

With the wind failing all further racing for the day was cancelled, and the sailors were free to enjoy the entertainment at the lifeboat open day.

Sunday was another fine day with slightly more wind. The race officer again set a trapezoidal course in the middle part of the harbour, with four races to be sailed back-to-back to make up for the lost sailing on Saturday.

Race two was won by the Flying 15 Aggro (Geordie Sandison and Graham Forrest), followed by the Fireball White Lightning (Willum Mouat and Neil Fraser) and the Laser Ocean Spray (Jeff Dobson).

Race three was won by Albacore Blue Mist (Steven Brown and Frank Guthrie), followed by Aggro and White Lightning.

Race four was won by White Lightning followed by the Fireball Harum Scarum (Darren and Craig Forrest) and the Flying 15 All For Nothing (Brian and Adrian Wishart).

Race five was won by All For Nothing followed by White Light-ning and Aggro.

Following a competitive regatta, which saw each race being won by a different boat, the overall results were calculated on a best four from five races. This meant that the Fireball White Lightning (Willum Mouat and Neil Fraser) were crowned Shetland champions. In second place was the Flying 15 Aggro (Geordie Sandison and Graham Forrest) and third overall was the Albacore Blue Mist (Steven Brown and Frank Guthrie).

In the race to be the Shetland Fireball champion the title was also won by White Lightning with Harum Scarum (Darren and Craig Forrest) second and Black Fantin (John Manson and Ivan Fraser) third.

A spokesman said the Shetland Dinghy Association would like to thank Lerwick Boating Club for hosting the regatta, Lerwick Port Authority for assistance and the Bressay ferry crew for avoiding the race course as much as possible. Further thanks go to Margaret Tait for being race officer and to Eddie Knight for providing the committee boat for the week­end.